Three Adelanto prisoners targeted for release have criminal records

ADELANTO >> Three prisoners with significant criminal records were the ones targeted for immediate release during an immigration rights protest, according to recently obtained information from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

None of the three was released from custody and one of the three is no longer at the Adelanto Detention Facility East, a privately run facility that houses prisoners for ICE, authorities said.

Three area community college women students were arrested at Monday’s protest after they used bicycle locks to pin themselves to an outside gate, vowing to stay that way until the three men were released.

Sheriff’s deputies cleared about 100 other protesters from the prison site Monday at the request of prison owner Geo Group. The three women were the only ones arrested.

Artyom Karapetyan, one of the three men the protesters were seeking to have released before Thanksgiving, had been transferred to the jurisdiction of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in August due to an outstanding warrant and is still housing him, wrote Virginia Kice, an ICE spokeswoman, in an email.

“Everyone makes mistakes. These men deserve a second chance,” said Luis Nolasco, a community organizer for the Inland Empire Chapter of the California Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance, one of the groups that staged the protest.

“These men have all been through rehabilitation,” Nolasco said.

According to ICE, Karapetyan’s criminal history includes two felony convictions in 2011, one for burglary and one for drug violations.

San Bernardino County jail records show Karapetyan had been convicted of assaulting a correctional officer, also a felony, this year.

“Karapetyan was originally ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2012. He has appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and that appeal remains pending at this time,” Kice wrote.

Alessandro Negrete, another leader of the Inland Empire immigrant youth alliance, said that after Karapetyan has served his time in jail, he will be sent back to the Adelanto prison.

Carlos Hidalgo, one of the other two men targeted by the protest, came into ICE custody in July 2012 after his release from the Los Angeles County Jail. He was then released from ICE custody under an “Intensive Supervision Appearance Program,” but he failed to comply with the rules and was ordered deported in absentia in December 2012.

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Hidalgo came to the ICE facility again early this year after he was re-incarcerated in the Los Angeles County Jail, Kice said. He remains in custody following the immigration court’s decision to reopen his case. Hidalgo has two prior convictions for driving under the influence as well as two prior convictions for probation violations, Kice wrote.

The third man, Santos Maltez, was taken into custody in March by officers assigned to the ICE Los Angeles Fugitive Operations Team based upon a lead from the Megan’s Law website. Database checks indicate Maltez was convicted of a felony sex offense in 2010. He remains in ICE custody while the agency makes arrangements to carry out the immigration court’s 2012 deportation order, Kice said.